JCB_K

What I think many Instagram critics misunderstand, is that Instagram is not about the filters. Sure, they're added value for many people, but at some point they'll go out of fashion, and I'm sure the people at Instagram know that damn well.

The real value of Instagram is the social network behind it. Photos are the easiest way of sharing what you're doing. You don't need to write a word, you just hold out your phone, snap a picture and upload it. And from the other side it's exactly the same, you don't even need to read to know what your friends are doing, you just glance over the picture stream.

Obviously you can do exactly the same on Facebook and Twitter, but by focussing on just photos Instagram has cut away all the clutter. And if you want to share what you're doing (or should I say seeing?) with friends who are not on Instagram, you can still flick the sharing switch.

All over the world? They've got sites in 9 countries.

Nicely done. Very fast as well, never seen a webapp load that quick. Anyone with a bit of explanation on how this is done?

" Dozens of Android models distributed across multiple countries by numerous brands such as Amazon, Samsung, Asus and others have been driving volumes."

The Kindle Fire really shouldn't be counted as an Android device. What's next, a press release stating Linux hits an all-time high market share, running on devices such as the Mac, iPhone, all Android phones and the Raspberry Pi?

I'm on Giffgaff, which is a daughter company of O2, same problem. Started a support thread on the website, let's see what they say.

Don't think they'll gain much market if they keep it this way. Lovefilm is £10, which is a bit more than Netflix (£6), but their collection is infinitely better.

Whereas I'm not saying they should remove the limitation, I think that should be the last of Twitter's concerns. Not sure if there's any official numbers on this, but I'd guess the percentage of tweets sent by SMS is not much more than 3 or 4%. It's what made Twitter big, but texting tweets is legacy now.

Seems like an interesting concept. Still, when it comes to mobile contracts I'm happy I'm not living in the US. Even though this seems to be quite a good deal, it has quite a strict fair use policy. [1] Here in the UK I pay £10 ($16) a month for 250 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data. No contract, free texts and calls to people on the same network.

[1] "the company suggests that 550 minutes, 150 texts, and 300 MB of data would be close to the limit" - http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/smart_phones/23...

There is a downvote button, it's just visible after a certain karma threshold, which moves up at the same rate as "karma inflation".

Looks awful on this (admittedly small) screen: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2819425/fontorie.png

This isn't really a hack: it's just a streamlined way to have shortlinks to you Dropbox-files with built-in statistics. What's next, an article by the bit.ly people saying they got a hack to get stats on links you post on Twitter?

My parents got a book documenting my family tree back to the end of the 16th century, which was the first moment someone with my surname was mentioned anywhere. So that means that my family has been Dutch for at least the past 400 years.

Interesting. Some more context would be good though: is it part of a certain chapter of some sorts, or does it really stand on itself?

So true. I needed to go from the Netherlands to Gothenburg, which would be ~200 from Amsterdam. By crossing the border with Germany, taking a Ryanair flight and then a train, I got this down to ~100.

Someone, please build this!

EDIT: And don't forget to add coaches. Whereas they're not that popular, they're dirt cheap.

Does anyone know of a similarly good service which works in Europe? I normally use skyscanner.net, but while it does the job, it's one of those headache-inducing websites the articles talks about.

Google Apps does the same, for domains with many users.

Yes, particularly when it comes to Android. Exactly the reason why Angry Birds is free and ad-supported on Android, as opposed to iOS.

I still don't see the point of a service like this. With a tiny bit more work you have them on your own server, and you have all the control. If Google tomorrow decides to stop serving fonts, your design won't be broken.

With some services I understand people rather have it externally has it's a hassle to do it yourself, but @font-face is too easy to not do it.

You seem to think paying for insurance for the unemployed is negative...and it probably is, until you're unemployed yourself. It's not so much about wether you're paying it yourself, or via taxes, but it's about social security. After all, you need help most in times you can't afford it.

What you're saying is not exactly right. They own most of the Wired internet infrastructure, but when it comes to Mobile there are 4 networks with their own infrastructure. This deep scanning was only meant for mobile internet, AFAIK. If 1 company would increase prices on data (or certain kinds of data), they'd lose customers. If they'd do it together, they'd get huge fines for forming a cartel.

And instead of 50-100 people on 1 vehicle, it's 1. Not really eco-friendly, and not cheap either.

bear in mind, it's Gina Trapani writing this. She should know how to use an API.

cz.cc is not a TLD, it's a SLD.

I worked on something similar to this a couple of months back: http://hackernewsbot.posterous.com. Never finished it though.

For me it goes like this:

-I don't like the fact that my services are so scattered out among different companies.

-I start moving stuff to 1 service.

-I get intensely excited about the integration.

-I get paranoid about Mogul Company X having all my data.

-I move parts of it away.

-Repeat.

[slight exaggeration]

Definitely not, I know loads of people who are happy Apple users but by no definition geeks, and they watch it. Just because they want to know what way the platform is going they're using.

I wouldn't say Putin is an asset to any country, but you can't blame it all on him either. With people like Lenin, Stalin and Jeltsin as your predecessors you don't really start off good.

Quick human translation:

A ban on a tax on services like Skype or Whatsapp will be included in law. During a parliamentary debate this afternoon it came clear that minister of Economic Affairs Verhagen agrees on a proposal by D66 [political party] to lay this down in law.

Free and open internet is "very important" for society, according to Verhagen. "I think everybody should get access to all information online."

This makes the Netherlands the first country in Europe, and the second in the world to lay down net neutrality in law. Only Chili did this before.

Verhagen earlier already said that he thinks a tax on services like Skype or Whatsapp is a step too far. Reason for this was an announcement by mobile services providers like KPN and Vodafone to tax certain services, as calling and texting is in decline.

Verhagen thinks it's "undesirable" that providers would stop services because they compete with their own. "This is not good for innovation".

A majority in the parliament agreed as well.

Looking at Apple's track record, I don't expect anything else than a good-working service. Not that anything Apple touches turns into gold (MobileMe...), but seeing that this is a major new feature for them, they've probably tested it quite well.

Another Dutchie in the UK here. Your experiences sound very familiar. People passing me in my office would mumble a quick "heyyoualrighthowyoudoing", and I would stand still and say something like "yeah I'm good! How are you doing today?" They'd be terrified.